recent post

This is covered all over the place. Did you search the forum or even Google before you posted?
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/110780?replies=6#post-534119

Essentially, just put this at the top of any page outside of WordPress:

<?php
/* Short and sweet */
require('../wp-blog-header.php');
?>

And now that page is hooked into WordPress. You can call to any WordPress functions and display whatever you want. And if you try this:
http://ifelse.co.uk/archives/2005/04/10/make-wp-show-only-one-post-on-the-front-page/

it should only show the latest post. Or you can try a plugin:
http://girasoli.org/?p=26

And I use Limit Posts to control how many characters from each post are displayed:
http://labitacora.net/comunBlog/limit-post.phps